Cleveland Clinic study on concussion risk in kids funded by the NFL: Whatever happened to ...?

View full sizeGene Puskar, Associated PressNFL commissioner Roger Goodell, left, poses with Jaqueal Hitchcock, 14, from the Akron Parents Pee Wee Football League. In February 2011 the Cleveland Clinic began to research concussion risks in children. The study was funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Football League.

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Whatever happened to the Cleveland Clinic study on concussion risk in kids funded by a $100,000 grant from the National Football League?

The study, which began in February 2011, is nearly complete and has secured funding for its next phase of research.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic gathered data for a year on children's head and neck size and their range of motion, and then conducted test dummy simulations of how those measurements influenced the impact of collisions to the head.

More than 90 kids between the ages of 7 and 17 participated.

The effort is a collaboration of Clinic's Spine Research Laboratory, the Department of Neurosurgery and the Center for Spine Health.

Now that data collection is complete, the research group expects to release two or three research papers on its findings in the fall, said Dr. Edward Benzel, principal investigator for the project and chair of the Clinic's Department of Neurological Surgery.

"We have three people working on the data right now," he said. "It's thousands and thousands of data points."

On July 10, The team received a $200,000 grant from the Orthopaedic Research & Education Foundation to continue their research.

Benzel said the grant will let help them start to look at what happens in real life collision situations using a mouth-guard they've made that measures acceleration during impacts. It can tell the researchers how fast the brain moves, and they can translate that into information about forces applied to the spine, as well.

"I think the intent for all of this is to improve youth safety in collision sports," said Benzel. "Hopefully through better understanding of the mechanics and the characteristics of the athlete we can tailor rules and modifications of equipment to optimize safety."

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